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Friday, May 20, 2011

Venice Beach Blade-Park and Venice Ale House.

Aidan with his GoPro HD camera that he mounted onto his bike lock for smooth filming.

We woke up early, Aidan, Mark, Kruise and I went to the cafe and there were 30 different types of coffee flavors. French Vanilla, to some Columbian flavors. There was a plethora of flavored creamers as well. I chose to do french vanilla coffee with a Toffee creamer. I can care less about sugar and I put about a Tbsp of creamer. I like my coffee to taste like coffee.

We headed to Venice beach, home to all kinds of people. Hippies with hemp clothing, dull colored, with dread-locks. There were advertisers in green scrubs to get your low cost - medical marijuana card. Then, of course, the guy on the corner who's just looking for some change to drink the rest of the day away. After walking by muscle beach, then through the basketball courts where I think they filmed, "White Men Can't Jump" with Woody Harrelson, there was a real life ninja competition. Who would have thought?

The course began with jumping on these platforms and with one wrong move you were in a pool of water. Other obstacles included being on a rope and ninja flipping down, similar to being a child rolling down a grassy hill. One contestant got stuck on an obstacle any blader would have been able to get out of.

The obstacle had a inverted slope shaped like the bottom of a pool or mini ramp. Then there was a ten foot wall that any blader would know how to get out of because they had to unfortunately slip and fall and get stuck on the mini-ramp. Running and then jumping to barely grab the coping/edge, with the tips of your fingers. Then, using the pull-up method and taking every ounce of muscle, scaling the wall, as if hanging off the edge of a cliff and with one slip, instant fall into the lava pit of death or back from where you started.

We didn't hang out to see if the ninja ever made it past the ramp. It seemed hopeless and we couldn't bear to watch someone fail with money on the line for something that was easy for us. We went to a real course where someone can actually get hurt.

The blade-park is amazing, as it lays right on the beach. The only part is having to schmooze with the skateboarders who are old-school, Hessians, and have a hard time accepting the fact that bladers exist. Other's were respectable as they were there for the same reason as we were, To Shred.

At the ninja event there were some food-trucks there. One that the blader community is proud of in L.A. is Lomo Arigato. I used to blade with this guy 10 years ago in high-school. Chef Eric makes some amazing peruvian food. Here he is wearing his good ole Senate shirt.

Just to give you an idea of what can be found at Venice.

After blading it was beer-time.

We stopped by the Venice Ale House for good food and good beer, right on the boardwalk. Here's Kruise losing his mind.

I ordered a Portabella sandwich with roasted bellpeppers, avocado, and some Mayo. The roasted potato wedges were seasoned with herbs, and I was reprimanded by my server for not eating my salad, because it was wasteful. She took my plate before I even had a chance to eat it. I think it was her way of flirting with me... or I could be wrong.

The New Yorker sun-burnt in California.

Eating right on the boardwalk I yelled at a kid that passed by with a Razors sweater on. I told him I liked Rollerblading and he was happy to see us. He wanted his blades but, we didn't have anything extra for him. Rollerblading is far from dead.

Aidan got his food a little late.

After finishing our extremely satisfying meal we hung out at the restaurant for a little while longer. Enjoyed a casual smoke, caught up on good times, and as expensive as time was, we were spending it as brothers. Soon to be dispersed throughout the country in our native state and anticipating the next time we would cross paths again to share another meal, and have a beer. Until then...